Nanoscale dipole antennas have been fabricated to be resonant at optical frequencies. Because optical antennas link propagating radiation and confined/enhanced optical fields they have found applications in optical characterization, manipulation of nanostructures, optical information processing, and other electrical applications.
However, the precision required for nanometer-scale manufacturing has limited the ability of nanoscale dipole antennas. This is because individual dipole antennas lack the efficiency and sensitivity needed to render them useful in real-world applications, and current fabrication techniques do not allow a large number of dipole nanowire antennas to be disposed in a small region. Thus, the creation of a high density dipole antenna array is not possible with current techniques.